Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (DSA3) is one of the 16 Departments of the University of Perugia. The main focus of the DSA3 is sustainable production of food and other biological products through the integration of basic and applied research on plants, microorganisms, animals and the environment. Research and teaching cover a wide range of topics from the molecular level to the ecosystem scale, such as: plant and animal biology, natural resources, agriculture, biotechnology. The mission of the department is to stimulate fundamental research and the synergy between basic and applied research in plant and animal biology and environmental science. The principal aim of the department is to contribute to solve the challenges that the global society is facing in relation to the production of food and other biological products and the environment.
The DISAA will contribute to:
– Design and run the comparison among three cropping systems (INT, ORG, ORG+) with increasing “ecological intensification” on arable and field vegetable crops
– Perform experimental measurements and collect data concerning: climatic parameters, crop production, biomass and growth analysis, ecophysiological indexes, quality parameters at harvest, nitrogen leaching for the three proposed technical itineraries.
– Estimate of the nitrogen balance (in collaboration with DA) and CO2 release from soil (in collaboration with SSSA);
– Monitoring the growth of vegetable fruits with special sensors (in collaboration with DiPSA);
– Provide material for the analyses performed by other units.
The DISAA will be represented by the principal investigator, dr. Giacomo Tosti, PhD.
Position: Fixed term Assistant Professor
Institution: DISAA, University of Perugia
Address: Borgo XX Giugno, 74 – 06121 Perugia (Italy)
e-mail address: giacomo.tosti@unipg.it
telephone number: +39- 075-5856333
CV
-2004 M.Sc. in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Perugia
-2008 Ph.D. degree in Productivity and Environmental Sustainability in Agriculture (University of Perugia)
Employment:
-2005, temporary employee (CoCoCo) at the Dept. of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Perugia (DAES-UNIPG)
-2006, temporary employee (post-lauream scholarship) at DAES-UNIPG
-Since 2007, temporary job as Research Assistant (Post-doc fellow) at DAES-UNIPG
Research interests and activities:
-Plant abiotic stress and overall crop ecophysiology
-Crop development, source-sink relations and biomass partitioning
-Canopy architecture and solar radiation
-Modelling of crop growth and development
-Nitrogen fertilisation management and its effect on the photosynthesis and yield of different crops
-Management and characterization of crop residues, effect on CO2 balance and soil fertility
-Cropping systems comparison and optimization of sustainable techniques
-Effects of pure and mixed cover crops on N nutrition and product quality of the subsequent summer crop
-Below-ground root interaction between legumes and non-legumes, competition and facilitation dynamics
Other staff involved in the project:
- Marcello Guiducci: full professor in Agronomy and Crop Sciences, expertise on organic farming and cover crops (marcello.guiducci@unipg.it)